


Things They Don't Want

by sugarby



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, M/M, Rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 16:13:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15416724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarby/pseuds/sugarby
Summary: Introspection into outcomes Shouyou, Tobio and Tooru don't want while they're playing volleyball.





	Things They Don't Want

**Author's Note:**

> Previously in a short stories collection that I recently scrapped but I've kept a few to post separately.

**_:_** _: Shōuyōu ::_

 

i. Shouyou doesn't want to lose to Kageyama Tobio. **  
**

It's his first,  _official_  match—the one he's ran early mornings and trained with middle-aged women for, and he reckons he'll remember it for the rest of his life. He's dreamt of it being  _great, b_ eing  _amazin_ g. He's even imitated over dinners sometimes how it would be: people cheering, the blinding lights, hitting spike and after spike and scoring.

"I'm short but I can jump!" he's had to explain to so many people and is prepared to tell the doubters he expects to face.

But now the day's finally here and it's not quite like any of his dreams. From the moment the third years of Kitagawa Daiichi Jr. High walk by and one of them carries this superior aura like a dragging cape, Shouyou's a startled, trembling mess indecisively between emotions. That third year is a monster—to his opponents and his own team. Young, talented but merciless. No, strong. His teammates stop trying to keep up with his pace and eventually stop playing with him altogether, his empowering "king" aura over him like a conspicuous banner.

Shouyou will remember this day and his team's crushing defeat. He'll remember this day and how he was a sobbing, despondent mess when he confronted Tobio. He'll remember this day and his sore eyes, his heavy heart plus the resolve and spirit it was full of as he swore to one day defeat  _The King Of The Court_ , Kageyama Tobio, and be the one left standing. 

 

_ii. Shouyou doesn't want this reality._

High School begins and a thirty-minute bike ride over a hill later, he's ready to burst with excitement. He shoots in through the entrance gates of Karasuno High, showered under cherry blossoms and gorgeous sunshine. He composes himself long enough to chain his bike before he hurries off to the gymnasium, weaving through the crowds in the halls, leaping and bouncing along.

He takes everything in—the shimmer across the laminated flooring, the high balcony, the smell of perspiration from hard work—and is reminded that Karasuno isn't just his school for the next three years, it's the start of his journey to become a better player.

Fast, strong, equipped with more skills to one day defeat—

_Smack, whack!_

Shouyou's excited expression falls. "No..." He watches the other person already in the room in disbelief, every good feeling draining like the colour of his complexion.  Tobio tosses the ball and bends his knees. Arms back, he runs, jumps and hits it across the room.  _'A jump serve?! He couldn't do that last year, could he?!'_  

Tobio lands with more grace than last time. He looks at Shouyou, surprised but not devastated.

Shouyou bites his lip, shaking, "You can't...be here..." And the feeling of the unexpected, of opening a gift and finding it's not what you want or even remotely similar, doesn't really ever leave him. 

 

iii. Shouyou doesn't want to be underestimated.

Tsukishima Kei is a colossal, condescending, one-hundred and eighty-eight centimetre standing jer and he doesn't bother to pretend otherwise. He's been talking bullshit—"King this" and "King that"—and Shoyou doesn't know why he hasn't been punched yet. God, he wants to punch him. Wants to be as tall or taller than Kei and give him a good, hard hit between the eyes and knock his glasses off.

Tobio just collects his bag, tells him, "Let's go."

Shouyou double-takes, "W-What?!" because if he were the one saying all the 'King' stuff then he would've already been flung across the air for sure!

"Go ahead, run away." Kei picks up the abandoned ball, rests it on the palm of his large hand, "Guess the King's nothing special after all." He tosses the ball up casually and it goes above his head.

Shoyou jumps, catches it and lands at Kei's feet, to his expected surprise. "You done? For a guy wearing glasses, you sure talk a lot of nonsense."

A push up of his lopsided glasses later and Kei's smug grin makes a sickening return, "Oops. Sorry, sorry, I forgot about you since you're all the way down there. Do speak up next time, OK?"

Tadashi cackles, "Good one!"

Shoyo glares, "Just knock it off!" he points at them, challengingly. "Come this Saturday, I'm gonna spike a lot of balls over your head!"

"Let's not be so intense. It's only a club activity after-all."

 _'It's everything to us'_ Shouyou thinks, watching them finally leave. He quickly tries to amp Tobio up by telling them how Saturday's going to play out, how they're going to pummel them. Tobio doesn't look convinced but he says, "No shit, I don't need you to tell me that, Dumbass!" so Shouyou thinks they're alright for now.

 

_iv. Shouyou doesn't want "relieving himself" to be a haunting task._

Shouyou runs in to Tobio's former teammates from Junior High on his way to the bathroom. Before he can get by, one of them grabs him by his jacket for his affiliation with Karasuno and makes inquiries about how Tobio currently is—if he's the same. "Peasants like me suffer under his reign!" he says with a clenched hand, recalling all the times he's been knocked around, taken serves to the face, and that one time he was poked with a stick instead of the ball he was trying to retrieve from a tree. "Just because he's skilled! Who does he think he is?!"

Kindaichi snorts and tells Shigeru beside him, "Told you. It's obvious his skills at receiving, blocking and serving are good."

Shouyou furiously nods, "Really good!"

"But his toss is the fucking worst."

"But his toss is the fucking best."

They spoke at the same time. Looking at each other, they're convinced the other is completely lost.

"His toss..." Kindaichi repeats slower in case his speed caused the misunderstanding.

Shouyou says firmly, "It's fucking awesome."

 

v. Shouyou doesn't want people talking trash about his rivals.

"An excellent seedling needs suitably excellent soil. It can't yield first-rate fruit on barren land." Ushijima thinks he's got the entire Aoba Josai volleyball team down. Thinks they're so out of his team's league and that, except for Oikawa Tooru, they're nothing to take seriously.

Even Tobio, who sometimes speaks reminiscently of his dictatorship days put behind him, recognises an opponent's strength. Shouyou didn't practically run a marathon following Ushjima to his school to hear this bullshit. "If they're barren land..." Shoyo says, "Does that make _us_ equivalent to  _concrete_  then?"

Ushijima notices the shadow cast across his face and finds it uncomfortable to stare at him head-on for too long. Still, he sticks to his belief, "It's not my intention to offend you, but it's not something those who lose and can't continue forward can change my mind about."

A ball shoots from the open gymnasium and flies their way. Ushijima goes for it, naturally. He swears Shouyou was standing next to him but now he's in the air, catching it first! _'Unbelievable'_ , a speechless Ushijima thinks, _'...yet remarkable'_.

Shouyou lands in front of him. With Tobio at his side and a strong heart, he declares "You can think what you fancy, but we're going to knock you down and go to nationals. I'm Hinata Shouyou and I sprouted from the concrete." _'Bitch'_ is something he considered adding after but despite everything, Ushijima is still _one-hundred and eighty-nine centimetres_ and could literally squash him. 

 

* * *

   
:: Tobio ::

 

_i. Tobio doesn't want his estranged relationship with Aobajosai to wreck things for Karasuno._

His current teammates ask how he's feeling about their practice match today against his Jr. High school.

Tobio says, "Good. We'll win."

They ask because most of his teammates (who _rejected_ him, would've rather warmed up to _ice_ than him) went on to Aobajosai.

Tobio nods, "Yeah." and sinks into the high collar of his uniform jacket while looking away. 

And they wonder if he's fine with this but Tobio doesn't answer at first because what if he's not? They can't afford to wait to hear about another school not wanting to practice with them, calling them _'fallen crows'_.

"I'm fine, thanks." Tobio moves on to inquire about Shouyou after he threw up on the bus and went for the toilets as soon as the bus stopped. He relatively doesn't care past how useful he'll be on the court but Tobio doesn't know how many more times he has to say he's fine until he's convinced himself.

 

* * *

 

:: Tooru ::

 

i.Tooru doesn't want his graduation to mean goodbye.

The last match of his Junior High run earns him the as Best Setter award. Snot dripping down his nose, tears puffing up his eyes, Hajime standing beside him isn't any different as they swear they'll defeat Shiratorizawa someday.

Tooru isn't going to just forget about Tobio though. Despite how upset he is, he tells the first year behind him, lined up with the others, "I'll crush you!"

Tobio, young and impressionable, offers him a tissue from his pocket.

 

 

ii. Tooru doesn't want to be at Shiratorizawa.

He's good but he doesn't think he's better than his teammates. Had Ushijima had the opportunity to say otherwise in front of the entire AobaJosai volleyball team, Hajime wouldn't have been able to hold Tooru back. There's smug and there's fake and Tooru can admit he can be a little of both but a mix of but Ushijima's worse.

He's also _pushy_ , literally coming to AobaJosai, finding Tooru in the vacant gymnasium, trying to recruit him, "You're awfully persistent, Ushiwaka-chan. Are you a fangirl?"

"Consider it, at least."

"Practice is about to start."

"It's _Monday_."

Tooru keeps it together, smiles painfully awhile more, "Look, thanks but _no thanks_. Just having one good player doesn't mean a team will win. That's why, as strong as I am, I know my teammates are strong too. I feel bad for you if you can't understand that."

"Yet, as it stands, you still haven't beaten me." Ushijima reminds him, "You won't, unless you leave."

" _You_  leave, Ushiwaka-chan. Door's there, use it." Tooru turns his back on him, leaving no room for negotiation.

 

 

iii. Tooru doesn't want to lie when it comes to his abilities in volleyball.

"Tobio-chan's tosses are incredible. I doubt anyone can match them."

"And that's including you, is it?"

Tooru can only shrug and offer a half-apologetic smile, "I can't toss like he does. But I'm a lot better than him at receiving and—yah!"

Hajime had thrown the ball between them at his head, "You don't admit shit like that, Idiot. It's not like you to doubt yourself anyway."

Tooru rubs his head, "I'm not saying I'm useless or anything." He can't, the whole team would have his head, Hajime at the helm. "Actually, I think you just want the opportunity to chat me up—gah!"

Hajime had kicked him this time.

 

 

iv. Tooru doesn't want to be anything but an opponent to Ushijima.  
  
Ushijima visits him again and outright says that maybe his 'recruitment offer' will go a lot smoother if the two of them have a stable, civil relationship. He's tall, not-so bad to look at and a damn good volleyball player, and maybe that's it. Maybe that's the limited supply of compliments he can be handed.

"Listen, I wouldn't go even if Iwa-chan told me to."

"Iwa-chan?" Ushijima repeats, then it clicks. "Iwaizumi Hajime."

"That's what I said."

"But it's not."

"Bully!"

"How—"

Tooru yells over his shoulder down the hallway, "Iwa-chan, c'mere quick, Ushiwaka's all over me again!"

Ushijima's squints down the hallway, sees no-one.

But Hajime literally comes from round the corner, back across his back and jacket zipped up like he has somewhere to go. "Oi, Shittikawa, I could hear you from the next hallway!"

"That was the idea, Iwa-chan."

Hajime gives Ushijima an acknowledging look and only says, "Yo." to be polite.

Ushijima doesn't bother greeting him back. Hajime's no more his fan than Tooru seems close to realising his strengths and switching schools and teams. He tells Tooru to, "Consider it, at least."

"Aren't you tired of being shot down, Ushiwaka-chan?"

"Wouldn't you rather play at your best than," Ushijima briefly looks to Hajime, "Lower yourself to their standards?"

Hajime steps closer, defensive, "He said _no_."

"My intentions aren't to irritate you. I just think—"

"I don't give a  _toss_  what you think." Tooru says in a cold tone. He tugs on Hajime's arm, laughing at his unintentional pun. "See what I did there? I'm a setter and I said that I don't give a toss!"

"That's _hilarious_. Can we get going now?" Hajime glances suspiciously to Ushijima. "If you're done here..."

"There's nothing to be done with," Tooru lays an arm around Hajime's shoulders and leads him down the hallway, away from Ushijima. "I'm not interested and I never will be."

 

 

v. Tooru doesn't want to worry his best friend.

"You're not supposed to take him seriously, Iwa-chan!"

"Oikawa—"

"And you're not meant to listen to him. It's all nonsense!  _Total_ nonsense!"

"Look—"

Tooru insists, "You're supposed to kick me and tell me that I'm talking nonsense because there's no way he's right and that you guys are weak!"

"I know already that you're strong. Trust me, it's not like I'd want to play against you."

"...Okay. But?"

"But nothing. We promised each other that we would get better. Practiced our assess off so we could beat Ushijima and we will. I know when you're not being genuine and it wasn't when you and I said we'd stick together to defeat our greatest enemy. So I'm not worried. Unless I should be?"

Tooru smiles, "No way, we're sticking together."

**Author's Note:**

> Unintentionally left Tobio with only one part, I don't remember what happened to the rest tbh...╥﹏╥ 


End file.
